Download Festival
Download Festival takes place on three days in June, it is a Rock festival which has been run by Ozzfest and Monsters of Rock, the festival is now owned by Live Nation. Download takes place in Derbyshire at Donington Park and gets visitors from all over the world. It first came about as a follow up to the Monsters of Rock events that were also held at the Donington Park location and lasted for 2 days, until this was lengthened to 3 in 2005.
The name Download was chosen to cause controversy, firstly downloading had started to hit the industry with people downloading music illegally, people in the industry were quoted to have said that the festival would destroy the music industry, and the festival was set to be the Monsters on Rock style of concert for the 21st century. People in the rock industry liked this controversy because the gene has always been known as rebellious.
The organisers aim was to use the internet as a means of connecting with fans and so in 2003 along with tickets they have fans the code for downloading tracks that bands were set to play at the event, they have since dropped this but they have continued to have their festival forums' online. Downloads first festival was in 2003 and had headline act, Iron Maiden and Audioslave, the festival also saw a secret set by Metallica who went on and played an unannounced set after having zero rehearsals or sound checks. Other bands that played were Marilyn Manson, Funeral for a Friend, Stone Sour, Evanescence, The Darkness, HiM and many more.
In 2004 there were 3 stages, and 72 acts, although there was a few problems with some bands not getting there, equipment being lost, buses breaking down. However the biggets problem was when Metallica took to the stage and announced that their drummer has been rushed to hospital, they were an hour and a half late to the stage and joined by stand in drummer Dave Lombardo from Slayer and Joey Jordison from Slipknot, the performance is thought on as their most memorable one to date.
In 2005 the festival was made to 3 days and was different to the others as the Friday was Indie Day' and the Saturday was known as Ozzfest 2005 with Black Sabbath heading the main stage. Billy Idol also performed as well as System of a Down, Feeder Velvet Revolver, Bowling for Soup, Papa Roach, Biffy Clyro, Towers of London and My Chemical Romance. The 2006 festivals was one of the best with headlining acts being Tool, Metallica and Guns N' Roses, due to their great line-up the festival was known for having the largest selling acts out off all the festivals in the UK.
A big moment of the 2006 festival was when the lead singer of Korn was rushed to hospital and had guest vocalists from Slipknot, Avenged Sevenfold and Trivium, lyrics were displayed for the guest singers. During Metallica's set they played the whole of their album Master of Puppets for their 20th anniversary, and Guns N' Roses played songs from their new album.
Last year headliners were Slipknot, Def Leppard and Faith No More and had around 120,000 people attend. In 2009 they also held the Boardie Takeover' night, this saw 4 bands, 3 DJs, a stand-up, 2 singers and burlesque dancer, of whom were found on the Festival Forums, all performed together. They also had secret sets that saw the likes of Enter Shikari and Thunder perform, after first selling out of camping tickets a week before the festival they released about 2,500 tickets that sold out in less than 24 hours. Some of the other acts that performed were; The Prodigy, Trivium. Motley Crue, Lip Bizkit, Billy Talent, Pendulum and Journey.
This year Download 2010 is set to take place of the 11th to the 13th of June at Donington once again, and it is set to be one of the biggest yet with a huge name for heading act having already been announced as AC/DC! Other acts that have been confirmed to date are Bullet for my Valentine, Motorhead, Wolfmother and Them Crooked Vultures.
